CONCORD — Lawmakers want to expand a popular food voucher program for senior citizens by creating tax incentives for more restaurants to participate, under a bill passed unanimously by the state Senate Thursday.
This bill would eliminate the collection of meals and rooms tax for meals served through the voucher program.
Restaurants charge the state $13 for every meal provided through this program, including $1 for taxes, and in round numbers, this charge would become $12 without the tax.
The loss in revenue to the state in meals and rooms tax will be made up since Meals on Wheels will ask for grants from the state for this program.
The 8.5 percent rooms and meals tax would be waived under House Bill 1191, and allow the seniors a chance to get out for a healthy bite to eat, meet some new friends and help out the restaurant at the same time, advocates said.
“This is by far the most effective way of reducing loneliness and isolation,” said Jon Eriquezzo, president and chief executive officer of Meals on Wheels of Hillsborough County in applauding the bill’s passage.
He testified earlier in the process and now the bill is likely soon headed to the governor’s desk for signing.
Eriquezzo said the three independent restaurants now in the Hillsborough Meals on Wheels Restaurant Voucher Program in its Dine out Club are seeing large influxes of people who can come in for up to eight meals a month.
The non-profit now gets $8.11 from the state for the meal which costs $13.
The difference is made up by either the suggested donation of $4 from those receiving the meal or through donations raised by the charity.
He said about half of the patrons pay the suggested donation.
Passing the bill, he said, leads to the program’s sustainability and perhaps expansion.
The voucher program is for the state’s population age 60 and over and has no financial requirements nor residency requirements, Eriquezzo said.
The program requires that the meals be healthy and meet nutrition standards.
The Restaurant Voucher Program is part of Meals on Wheels and is administered by the DHHS with funding shared between federal and state sources.
If signed by the governor, the act will take effect July 1, 2024.
Hillsborough Meals on Wheels serves 7,000 meals a month mostly at homes and mostly by volunteers making it the largest Meals On Wheels program in the state.
The state had been doing congregate center reimbursements in a voucher type program for years – mostly at senior centers and churches – but it has been in decline the past decade and exacerbated by the pandemic.
The voucher program has seen exponential growth with the Dine Out Club’s card accepted at three locations: White Birch Eatery in the Pinardville section of Goffstown, the Village Eatery in Merrimack and Francoeur’s Cafe in Manchester.
Sen. Shannon Chandley, D-Amherst, said the program also helps with food insecurity.
She urged people to support the restaurants that participate in the program and see the good work they do in their communities.
Eriquezzo said he is hopeful that the Hillsborough program can contract with another restaurant in the Nashua area and one in the western part of their coverage area, like Peterborough and Antrim.
He said he knows of one man who came from Florida and knew no one. He now has a group of friends who meet regularly at one of the restaurants and it led to a wedding proposal. He said he can also go into the restaurants and see increases in patrons.
“It’s really been quite a success,” he said.
For more information on the program visit https://shorturl.at/dvyAM
Or contact Maureen Brown at Maureen.Brown@dhhs.nh.gov.
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